Words about pictures by Michael Scandling

Play Misty For Me 2: Haleakala

December 6, 2004. Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii. We arose early to see the sunrise from the top of Haleakala. It was spectacular. Then we hiked down into the cone. It is the size of Manhattan. We might’ve been the only ones there.

Share this:

Like this:

Related

California based fine-art photographer featuring abstract, impressionist, and minimalist seascapes — near and distant — and floral-based images.
Fine-art photography can be seen at www.amagaphoto.com
All original images on this blog are copyright 2018, 2019, 2020 Michael Scandling. All rights reserved. No images on this site may be copied, duplicated, reused, published, or re-purposed in any way without express permission from the copyright owner, Michael Scandling.

No, there was no enlargement. Original frame was 3504 x 2336. This is reduced to 1800 x 1200 for the blog post. I don’t do step-by-step enlargements anymore. Now, when I have to go really big I use Topaz AI Gigapixel.

In practice, I have my camera’s LCD set to show me an RGB histogram. My cameras show the individual R, G, B channels plus the combined total. The important thing is not to let any of them run up the right side of the graph. In some floral photography, for example, the red channel will blow out while the blue and green are fine. In this case I expose to make sure the red is not over exposed. Otherwise I will lose crucial detail in my subject. When shooting landscapes, I want my skies to be perfect. Therefore I make very sure that none of the sky is blown out. The only exception would be the sun itself. I normally shoot aperture preferred and use the exposure compensation to adjust. A purist would scoff at me for not shooting manual, but in most — but not all — cases I don’t see a clear advantage to manual over my system. One time I definitely use manual is when I’m doing a multi-multi shot panorama. In this case you want your exposures to be consistent. Manual is really the only way to do that.

I always shoot RAW. It’s the only way to have full control of the results.